President Andrew Johnson
PHOTO: Library of Congress

ANDREW JOHNSON


As the Civil War came to a close in 1865, a man shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln. At the time Lincoln hardly knew his vice president, a man from Tennessee named Andrew Johnson.


Johnson was from Greeneville, where he owned a tailor shop. He later ran for Congress. And when the Civil War broke out, he remained loyal to the Union, which made him a hero up North and a villain in the eyes of many Southerners. It was because of this that Lincoln made Andrew Johnson his vice president in 1864.


The Andrew Johnson Homestead in Greeneville
It was a hard time to be president, and Johnson did not do well. Johnson wanted to help the South recover from the war, while many people in Congress wanted to punish the South. Because of these disagreements Johnson nearly became the first president ever removed from office.

Click here for a virtual tour of the Andrew Johnson Historic Site.

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